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Monday, November 17, 2008

I’ve been in the Philippines 6 weeks now. Saturday night we left for Baguio. November 16th was F.B.’s Dad’s birthday and the whole family went to Baguio for his birthday. F’s parents, his sister & her boyfriend and F and I. F.B.’s father paid for the whole trip, which was very nice.

We left the house around 10pm Saturday night. We rode tricycles to the front gate of F.B.’s village where we could get a taxi cab. In the Philippines another form of transportation is the tricycle. It’s basically a motorcycle with a metal covered sidecar. (I’ll have to get a picture of one!) F.B. & I rode in the covered part and F.B.’s parents on the back of the motorcycle behind the driver. Pretty crazy!

UPDATED: Here's some pictures of the tricycle:

We got a cab at the front gate to the bus station. F.B.’s sister & boyfriend followed us to the bus station. There was a lot of traffic getting to the station though. Our bus left for Baguio at 12am. It was a 4 hour nonstop drive. F.B. & I watched movies on my ipod and listened to music, we couldn’t sleep. The type of bus we were on was like a Greyhound bus. I’ve never taken a travel bus before in the USA but they sure drive crazy in the Philippines! Picture speeding down a narrow mountain road with lot’s of sharp turns with the bus driver driving in whatever lane he pleased. At some points you would see headlights coming at you and the bus driver would change lanes.

We got to Baguio around 5am. It’s much colder up there since it's way up in the mountains. (Still no snow though, haha!) We had to put on our jackets and hoodies. We took a taxi to a local church. The service was in another Philippine dialect though. There were a lot of birds flying around up near the ceilings of the church because it was an open church. One landed on a pew close to us.

After church we went to breakfast. Here are some pictures of F.B. & I at breakfast; you can see we are all bundled up because it was cold.

It was about 7am when we finished breakfast and raining lightly. We took pictures back in front of the church, with F.B.'s sister & boyfriend. (The church was pink!)

Some flowers that were outside the church:

We took a Jeepney for a little while (My first ride in a jeepeney!) and then a Taxi to Camp John Hay, where we had Starbucks! Whoo Hoo! (We really needed the caffiene!)

F.B.’s aunt met us at the Starbucks and then we went to Mines View Park. The view deck for the mountain was pretty crazy though, there’s just a wooden fence protecting you from falling to your death down the mountain side. F.B. & I stayed back from the edge, we were pretty high up.

Some pictures of the mountains & trees, etc:

There was a girl on the view deck that was wearing the exact same hoodie I had with me. The one F.B. bought me at Mall of Asia with the skulls and stars. I thought that was pretty funny, I had just taken my hoodie off before we got to the view deck. (It would have been really funny, if I had been wearing the hoodie, since I was standing right next to her on the view deck!)

I was stalking her here... shhhh....

Some horses up on the mountain in Baguio. One had a "pink" mane!

I saw a lot of these corn on a stick stalls... I thought they were interesting.

F.B. and I walked around to look at all the handmade souvenirs. I got some gifts for my family and F.B. bought me a mini jug that said 'Baguio'.

We also saw uhhhhh these interesting wooden… er... well... I’m sure you can guess what they are! We saw key chains of them and everything! Don’t ask me why!?

Afterwards we went to see the summer vacation home of the Philippine president.

F.B. really liked the Santa décor.

Then we headed to SM Mall of Baguio for awhile and had lunch buffet afterwards. F.B. & I were starting to feel really sleepy by the afternoon since we had been up 24+ hours. We drove around and saw a few more more sights before heading back to the bus station around 5pm. We had a 6 hour bus ride back. The ride back was longer because we had stops. Tried to sleep some on they way back, I could hardly keep my eyes open.

We got back to the bus station around 11pm and got back to F’s house around 12am. So altogether F.B. & I were up almost 36 hours! A very long day, when we got home we got showered up and went right to bed.

This week we might visit another zoo and go to Trinoma mall. Next week is Thanksgiving in the USA, and F & I are going out to Gerry’s Grill for my “Thanksgiving.” And November 29th we are going to see a play in Greenbelt. ‘A Christmas Carol’.

11-19-08: We went to Trinoma Mall today. Saw the movie 'Passengers' with Anne Hathaway. We also picked up some Martinelli's sparkling apple cider for my "Thanksgiving" in the Philippines next week. That's something my family always has on holidays, so was very excited to see it in the Philippines!

Saw a frog tonight. He was in the garage hiding behind a plant pot. F.B. moved the pot out of the way so I could get pictures of him. He's got some dust & hair on him though, haha. I didn't touch him... wasn't sure if he might be poisonous!